Facebook, YouTube, Twitter face hate speech complaints in France

Three French anti-racism bodies to file lawsuits against tech trio on Tuesday.

Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter will be hit with hate speech complaints from anti-racism groups in France, after it was claimed that the free content ad networks had failed to removed hundreds of hate posts over the past few months.

French anti-racism associations—Union of French Jewish students (UEJF), SOS Racisme, and SOS Homophobia—said that they planned to file their complaints with the French authorities.

A formal complaint is expected to be filed on Tuesday, May 17, a UEJF spokesperson told Ars.

The associations claimed to have conducted "the first mass testing of social networks" from March 31 to May 10, 2015. They found 586 occurrences of hate speech, including posts characterised as "anti-Semitic, denying the Holocaust, homophobic, or advocating terrorism or crimes against humanity."

Twitter subsequently removed four percent of the posts in question, YouTube took down seven percent, and Facebook nixed 34 percent.

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"These platforms seem more shocked by topless photos that are promptly censored than by incitement to hatred against persons or groups of people," said Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme.

Under French law, online platforms are mandated to remove illegal content within a "reasonable time," and report it to the authorities.

"Given the profits made ​​by Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook in France, and low taxes they pay, their refusal to invest in the fight against hatred is unacceptable," said Sacha Reingewirtz, president of the UEJF.

"The mystery surrounding the functioning of the moderation teams of social networks prevents any serious progress in reducing racist and anti-Semitic messages. Since the major platforms do not respect French law, not even their own conditions, they will have to face justice."

The promised complaint could be inspired by the actions of the German government, which struck a hate speech removal deal with Twitter, Google, and Facebook back in December 2015. The US companies pledged to remove illegal content within 24 hours of it being posted on the networks.

Andrii Degeler
Andrii is a contributing reporter at Ars Technica UK, covering a wide range of topics from policy to hardware and crowdfunding. He holds a master's degree in Journalism from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Emailandrii@proceed.to//Twitter@adegeler